Daniel Webster. of national reputation, his intimate associ ates in public life, how deeply Mr. Web ster's ability impressed his own generation, nor is it believed from the tone of the speeches at the reception of the statue, that the intervening years have materially modi fied that judgment. Of Mr. Webster's two sons who reached maturity, Edward was graduated from Dart mouth in 1841, though he had studied mostly in Europe under the care of Mr. Everett. He died in 1848, in the Mexican war, and Fletcher in the war of the Rebellion. All his descendants have passed away. The mother of his children was Grace Fletcher, of Hopkinton, N.H., whom he married in 1808. An old lady, her schoolmate at At kinson Academy, has told me she was a pale, modest, sweet girl, whom all loved. During a recent visit to Hopkinton, the house where she was born was pointed out, and I saw also the grave of her father, Rev. Elijah Fletcher, who died in 1786, at the age of 39. Most of the leading men of that period have been forgotten by the masses, but
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much as Webster impressed his contempo raries, the more than forty years since his decease have not lessened his fame. At the World's Fair, the thing that most at tracted attention in the New Hampshire exhibit was a huge plow, said to have been made and used by him. He was a great lawyer, a great statesman, a great writer, a great orator. He had the faculty of grasp ing the heart of a question, and presenting it with irresistible power, in plain Saxon lan guage, so that even the uneducated could understand. The speeches of many of our American statesmen have been collected, but none have continued to be read as those of Mr. Webster; none are so often quoted; from none have come down to us so many sentences that have become as household words. He early studied to acquire a clear, condensed style, and was particular in his choice of words. He could not have made such speeches as have distinguished the re cent silver and tariff debates in Congress, — mountains of words, all striving to ride on the back of a few poor ideas.
